It's a little unfair to say it should be 'recommendations'. There are plenty of negative experiences posted. I don't know about the tyres thread noted above, but most of the threads that I'm aware have been edited, rather than removed, and that was mainly to do with 'those so-and-sos are a bunch of thieves' kind of statements, rather than factual events.

“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

If any business deserves a round of applause in this context it's Spa Cycles. Go back several years and the reviews were mixed, in the true sense of the word. Jekyll and Hyde were mentioned. I don't think there was any protest from Spa but it's a good while now since I've seen any negative reviews on here. I don't know what happened, if anything to bring about this apparent change.

In the days when I ran a business (with a couple of others) we welcomed complaints. We recognised we made mistakes, got things wrong and you often just don't see your own errors. So having people complain when you get things wrong gives you the opportunity to put things right, becomming a better company, etc. And we always took complaints seriously as for every person that does complain about something, there are hundreds on others who suffer the same problems but don't bother to complain, just taking their business elsewhere.

So companies should monitor and welcome even negative comments. And, on a public forum gives them the opportunity to respond "Thanks for pointing this out. We are making changes to our warehouse/delivery/sales/etc. to avoid repairing such errors. Many appologies and please contact <xxx> directly to resolve the issue you have reported".

For a company to respond through trying to keep their errors secret through threats of legal action means they are just missing an opportunity to improve their business.

Wildduck wrote:Unfortunately this forum does not have the resources to fight off a legal challenge regarding comments that some companies find upsetting. Despite having the evidence to back up my claims against a tyre retailer, a decision was made to withdraw the whole thread on this basis (however I do note that I cannot find this company in business still - shame!).

Hence the existence of this sticky warning other to be 'careful' about what we say, regardless of whether it is accurate and is backed by evidence or not.

Personally I find it appalling that the law allows companies to bully us into silence but I suppose we'll just have to verbally spread the word when we're out and about with fellow cyclists.

“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Hello, I'm new here. Having just read this thread, I have to say that Graham and Vorpal are absolutely correct; one cannot badmouth legal commercial entities with no expectation of comebacks.

Psamathe is right on the money - when I was doing an MBA back in 2000, on the marketing module we had it drummed into us that customer complaints are gold dust, allowing the company in question to resolve the issue, shine in the eyes of the complainant, and enhance their reputation. Customer complaints are inevitable, there will always be someone for whom the level of perfection of customer service falls short of their ideal, and give and take in the real world is necessary, in order to keep a balanced outlook. E.g. I solicited a recommendation on here for some replacement pedals, and was swamped with helpful advice - I ordered a set via an eBay link and weeks later they have yet to arrive. Now, as the price was very competitive, I suspect that they are probably coming from mainland China on a container ship, and will arrive eventually, but as I opted for this cheap option and not a Rolls Royce service, I only have myself to blame. Were I to fulminate about the delay on this forum I would not be behaving reasonably and that degree of reasonableness is a requirement, don't you think?

Interesting forum, a bit different to my usual shop (BMW Motorcycle club UK) - seems very politicised too, but perhaps that description falls outside of the old Flanders and Swann quote "A decent bunch of old burghers on the council, they're not at all political, they're all Conservative".